Years Of Flooding To Be Fixed In Hein Park

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(Memphis) The Hein Park Neighborhood just north of North Parkway, next to Rhodes College, is one of Memphis’ most beautiful neighborhoods.

It’s nearly 80 years old.

Some of the homes have been plagued with flooding problems for decades.

“Persistent problems, people having problems mostly with water backing up in their basement,” said resident Roger Bransford who has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years.

Not all of the homes have basements, but of those who do many have reported sewage backups in their home.

“When heavy rains come through, it will cause it to back up. It's kind of a pain,” said Bransford.

Now the City of Memphis is planning on fixing the problem that they blame on old pipes.

“We will be lining the main line between one man-hole and the next man-hole. When that lining is occurring those particular six homes will be without indoor plumbing. It's technology that we use in the industry that allows us to line a sewer line without replacing the line,” said Director of Public Works Dwan Gilliom.

The project will take between two and three weeks to complete and will leave about 60 homes without plumbing for a period of 12-16 hours.

Next week, city leaders will meet with those who live in the neighborhood to look for options.

“Some of the council members suggest that we go in and install port a potties. Residents may not want that, we will look at other options. We want to hear from the residents first and make a determination in terms of how we are going to make sure that the residents do have access to plumbing,” added Gilliom.

For residents in Hein Park, they welcome the inconvenience in exchange for the long-term gain.

“So to go without water for 12 hours or even 24 hours shouldn't be a terrible thing. Especially we're a pretty close neighborhood here, we can just go across the street if we need to,” said Bransford.